[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J2FDjdwY4Y]  In this episode I offer a bit of perspective on the controversy surrounding the videos recently released by Dove.  This episode also features a special treat–a poem composed and performed by The Fat Chick her own self!

For Additional Discussion:

Here’s the original video by Dove.

Here’s a brand new column in the LA Times about the ads.

A great piece by Golda Poretsky on this same topic:

HuffPo Asks, Social Science Experiment or Brilliant Marketing Ploy?

A scandal erupts when a Craigslist ad for a previous Real Women project is made public:

A fun parody with men in the starring roles this time:

2 Comments. Leave new

  • Elle Hill
    May 2, 2013 12:56 pm

    BRAVA! Your poem is moving and so spot on. Good message, bad message, ambivalent one: it all comes down to snagging us in our demographic categories and selling us stuff. How can we be empowered when our power comes at the hand of someone reaching into our wallets?!

    Unto itself, the Dove commercial to me felt sweet and tepid. It reminded me of days gone by when I would speak to groups about the need to deconstruct media-defined beauty ideals. Inevitably, peeps would say at the end, “You’re right! They keep trying to sell me body dissatisfaction! But, you know, I’m *not* fat, and my mole *isn’t* hideous!” I would feel (but not articulate till years later), “But… I *am* fat. And that woman over there has a mole. Please don’t raise yourself up by stepping on others’ heads.”

    Big, fat hugs to the Fat Chick! <3

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